Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Men come screaming...

Time flies and it is a fortnight
today since I was sitting in a crowd at Stamford Bridge. Not a football in
sight that day. Instead, stars from the
premier league of the litigation world kicking around opinions and ideas at the
Modern Claims Conference 2014.

These are harrowing times for
many litigation lawyers, particularly in the personal injury world, being shot
at from all sides and paid progressively less for the privilege.For many, a large part of the
problem is in actually securing work in the face of a ban on referral fees, the
slashing of portal and fixed fees in relation to many claims and the bar on
recovery now of additional liabilities from the losing party.

Meanwhile, the numbers of ABS
grow and insurers happily carry on with whatever they are doing behind closed
doors with their claims managers, their panel lawyers and their friends in the
world of rehab.

In the midst of it all, up pops
the relatively new public face of the Association
of British Insurers (ABI) James Dalton with his latest idea.

He put it in terms that it is
time for a public debate about whether people should be awarded any
compensation for low value, very minor injury claims. The suggestion is that
victims of such accidents should be provided with rehabilitation, but no
cash. Dalton says that is a “legitimate
public policy debate for society to have and for politicians to decide on”. He added that he is not offering
the answer to the question, simply suggesting that it should be raised and
discussed.

I ran the concept past my teenage
son at the weekend. I explained to him
that what this means is that if you have an accident and you are injured then
insurers will (in theory) organize physiotherapy or whatever is required to
sort out your minor injury but there will be no compensation for loss of
earnings, pain and suffering, disability etc.

Well, no, he isn’t as far as I am
aware and I wouldn't begin to suggest it but I agree with the spirit of my
son’s spontaneous reaction. It made me think of the words of Elvis Costello:

“Men come screaming, dressed in
white coats

Shake you very gently by the
throat

One’s named Gus, one’s named
Alfie

I don’t want to go to Chelsea”

This is madness. Even relatively
minor injuries can result in a month or two off work. The effects of that for a self-employed
person or someone whose employer only pays SSP can be devastating, especially
on top of all the other expenses and hassle that go with it.

Are we seriously going to contemplate
a society and culture where people are not required to compensate others for
the damage and loss that their carelessness inflicts?

We are only here because insurers
say it is too easy for people to obtain compensation by fraudulent claims. In fact, it is only made simple because
insurers find it cheaper to pay up and then use the statistics generated by
their own perverse behaviour to try and convince us that virtually all small
claims are fraudulent.

In the same way, insurers have historically
stirred up the myth of compensation culture by creation of an entire industry
that profits from the sale of people’s information without their knowledge or
consent, taking at every opportunity payments that many consider contrary to
the as yet under used 2010 Bribery Act. See How it works - car insurance

The ABI, through Mr Dalton, tell
us that they deal in statistics rather than anecdotes. The problem with
statistics .....ok, enough said. The
parliamentary Transport Sub-committee made that one clear enough last summer - Hey diddle diddle

What’s more, they demonstrate
behaviours of, in corporate and ideological terms, of a fairly small cross
section of business which expects to wield enough integrity to put its feet
under the table at 10 Downing Street and make its views known.

Is this truly a debate that we
should have? Why?

Perhaps it is suggested now
because of expectations that a lot of people might be willing to take a short-sighted
view of anything like this, as long as they are told it might save them money
and they are not injured today.

Added to that, there is a
government which has proved itself willing in the past to do insurers’ bidding,
and is looking for support in the run up now to the next general election. A
government that cares very little for people with ‘low value’ claims.

We can easily foresee what the
ABI and HMG will classify as ‘small’, can’t we? Five grand.

For all those people who think
that they might save a few quid by putting their hands up for something like
this, look back at what has or has not happened even in recent times. Note again the criticisms of the
parliamentary sub-committee.

Have regard also to what David
Williams of AXA said at the same conference – that premia would be rising again
soon because the assumptions on which reductions had been made during the last
twelve months had not turned to reality.

Well, the cuts in legal costs
became reality and the ban on referral fees – at least for claimant firms doing
their business out in the open – also happened so what went wrong with the
plan?

It‘s quite simple. It did not produce enough extra profit for
the insurers. It never will.The lions share - no, they don't and they won't.

I suggested a few weeks ago that the lunatics were taking over the asylum - Fun boy three From what I heard at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago, that process is ongoing.